Jonathan V.

“Your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes, far in the distance.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

- Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“I am so afraid of people's words.They describe so distinctly everything:
And this they call dog and that they call house,
here the start and there the end.
I worry about their mockery with words,
they know everything, what will be, what was;
no mountain is still miraculous;
and their house and yard lead right up to God.
I want to warn and object: Let the things be!
I enjoy listening to the sound they are making.
But you always touch: and they hush and stand still.
That's how you kill.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Never forget that solitude is my lot ... I implore those who love me to love my solitude."

(Letter to Mimi Romanelli, May 11, 1910)”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke, a Soul History: In the Image of Orpheus